Early Detection of COPD Patients in GOLD 0 (Smokers) Population

Even though the main risk factor for the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is smoking only in less than one third of the smokers the clinically manifest COPD will develop. The disease progressive nature with high disability and mortality especially in the final stages makes it plausible to detect the disease as early as possible thus allowing for the early intervention. Major intervention trials in COPD, "Towards a Revolution in COPD Health" (TORCH), "Investigating New Standards for Prophylaxis in Reducing Exacerbations" (INSPIRE), and "Understanding Potential Long-term Impacts on Function with Tiotropium" (UPLIFT) have recently shown that the beneficial impact of intervention was larger in patients being treated in earlier stages of the disease development. Till now the only tool for an early diagnosis and early intervention that could be used on the global scale was spirometry even though symptoms and deprivation of quality of life (QoL) precedes clinically relevant spirometric changes. So there is a need for a new simple tool that would allow detection of patients in a very early stage of COPD. So the aim of this study is the development of diagnostic tools for an early detection of COPD, even before the significant change in spirometry.